22 REPORT ON OYSTER CULTURE 



Undoubtedly benefit accrues to the small cultivators of the soil 

 near the sea from these grants of foreshore, either for breeding or 

 fattening purposes, and the Government encourage such enter- 

 prises by affording facilities for obtaining stock from the Govern- 

 ment reserves, and by occasionally making free grants both oi 

 oysters and tiles. Sailors, or the families of sailors, serving or 

 who have served in the Imperial Marine, are allowed certain 

 advantages over other applicants for such concessions. 



The oyster and other fisheries are under the control of the 

 Minister of Marine Department, forming a special branch under 

 the able administration of M. de Champeaux, assisted by a per- 

 manent Commission of nine members, of which M. Coste is the 

 head. 



On the coasts the Commissaires d'Inscription Maritime are, in 

 addition to their other duties, charged with looking after the 

 fisheries, having under them divisional Inspectors, and occasionally 

 other subordinate employees. This system, as regards supervision, 

 affording information to fishermen, enforcing regulations, and 

 collecting statistics, appears admirable, and has been productive 

 of vast advantage to the fisheries of France. 



Causes of Decline of Production. 



It is now proposed to give somewhat more in detail an account 

 of the various methods of cultivation existing at the places 

 visited, and the causes which in the opinion of the Commissioners 

 have led to the failure or decrease of the fisheries. 



The wonderful increase in the yield of the natural bed of Can- 

 cale from 400,000 in 1815, to 70,000,000 in 1847, and the subse- 

 quent equally rapid decrease, is a subject which, as it bears upon 

 the restrictions necessary for the Irish deep-sea beds, deserves; 

 attention. The return is given at length in the Appendix C. 

 Here we have a long period of rest, and almost absolute cessation 

 of dredging, and the fact of a vast accumulation of oysters 

 taking place. Then follows the onset of a large fleet of boats' 

 without restrictions, which produces in a few years the destruction 

 of the bank. Comment is needless. 



Similar agreement in the main points is presented by the re- 

 turns of the public beds of Arcachon ; and we are happy to be 

 able to say that the present regulations are already producing a 

 steady improvement in the fisheries. It must be borne in mind 

 that in certain conditions of soil, &c, the absence of dredging 

 may be an evil instead of a benefit to the ground. 



Cases of this kind are those forming the subject of a recent 

 report by Mr. Cholmondeley Pennell to the Board of Trade. 



Mr. Pennell states that the Fish and Oyster Breeding Company 

 have cleared 100 acres of the portion of the Blackwater estuary 

 and thirteen acres of ebb-dry foreshore. Of the state of this 

 ground when it came into the company's hands, Mr. Pennell re- 

 marks that it was, for all practical purposes, barren of oysters, 

 and the " cultch" covered with mud and overrun with vermin and 

 weeds. 



